The first thing to do if you think you are harassed by Satan is to pray like a little child might, with simplicity, with faith, with trust. Use the Lord’s Prayer.
The second thing is not to worry. The Lord purposely came into this world to deal with all the hell that hell had to vomit out so that, having taken this on, and rising from the dead, He might have the right in all justice to have mercy on us. It’s a matter of love. And that’s how He wins.
If you’re harassed, that doesn’t mean that you are bad nor evil nor abandoned by our Lord. Not at all. This is the road for you that our Lord has permitted to help you in your circumstances of life with your priorities and in your relationship with Him. Our Lord can always take good out of evil for our benefit, the evil being there in the first place because of original sin and its just consequences. So, no depression. No despair!
The third thing to do is to contact a Catholic Priest in good standing who has been expressly appointed to be an exorcist in that particular diocese. Make certain of this. To find out how to meet up with him, contact your local parish priest of the local Catholic Church in your area, asking him if he would contact the chancery for you. If this is not possible, or you meet up with mockery, google the chancery or “Catholic Center” or “Pastoral Center” of the Catholic (Arch)Diocese in whose territory you live. Google, for instance, ” Catholic Diocese [or Archdiocese] ” along with “near” and the name of the largest city in the region. From there, look for the contact information. Try any number of offices on the list.
What you are experiencing might not be what you expect, and have nothing to do with Satan. Good! Now you know!
If there is something untoward, you might just need a house-blessing. I would ask for the “extraordinary form” of this house blessing. Blessings do what they say, and the extraordinary form of this blessing is most extraordinary. This is what you want. Trust me on that one.
If there is something more serious, the duly deputed exorcist will be able to guide you through the steps that you need to take.
Again, (1) Pray; (2) Don’t worry; (3) Contact a Catholic Priest…
* * *
What not to do:
Don’t do an exorcism yourself. Never command the devil. Ever.
Don’t go to charlatans. You’ll only get yourself in much worse trouble.
Don’t go to a Catholic Priest who says something stupid like: “It’s alright. We’re all exorcists!” or “I deputed myself! The bishop couldn’t care less!” or “I’m charismatic, so what I do is outside of the Church Law’s purview!” or, without any further discussion, simply concludes upon your inquiry, “You don’t need an exorcist. Nobody does. Just go to a shrink. Leave me alone!” or similar things. Instead, go to an expressly mandated Catholic Priest exorcist.
Whatever you do, don’t don’t don’t go to the charismatic deliverance pray over sessions. That’s where perhaps fully half of our cases have come from, starting there. Disobedience is the playground of Satan. Don’t do it. Even if the priest is famous, or the (usually) ever so nice prayer ladies try to insist that they’ve been doing this for years, and that they are real “prayer warriors.” You’ll only get yourself into terrible trouble. Again, go to an expressly mandated Catholic Priest exorcist.
Sorry to be so pedantic, but in this new-agey time, with the anything goes attitude of nicey-nice people who couldn’t care less about the welfare of individuals, only about their own self-promotion, it stems from my experience that pedantic is the way to go.
By the way, those of you who are not Catholic are not left out of the picture. Really. Just go to an expressly mandated Catholic Priest exorcist.
Accompany me, Father George David Byers, S.S.L., S.T.D., as I begin life as a Catholic Priest-Hermit by choice. Holy Souls Hermitage is dedicated to the sanctification of my fellow priests, bishops, deacons & seminarians going through the purgatory of this life or the next. Prayer and sacrifice go up, of course, for both Benedict XVI and the next Successor of Saint Peter. 
Thank you for this post, Father. I have found it very helpful. And, please pray for me and my family, as I will for you. -Richard
Father George, I was rereading the above writing and I noticed that you mentioned about charismatic deliverance. It brings to mind a “Seminar In the Spirit” that I attended. It was sponsored by our Roman Catholic Church quite a number of years ago. I often wondered afterwards, if I had picked up something at the Seminar, just like a virus but worse.
I was prayed over just like everyone else there. I felt like my body was on fire for days. The day after the Seminar was finished, I had a frightening experience during prayer at home. I was offering up a Litany of the Praises of Jesus when I was overcome by a dark spirit. It was a terrifying feeling. I was thrown into an immediate depression and my mind filled with strong, insistent thoughts of suicide to the point of how I would kill myself. I knew I was in grave danger. I tried to reach for my St. Benedict’s crucifix rosary. It took every ounce of strength to move my arm to reach the rosary. Then, I had to force every word of the Rosary prayer from my mouth. I persevered word after word and after a decade, whatever it was, passed. Or so I thought. I was left with a very strong impression that if I prayed the Praises of Jesus again, I would die. I was really afraid. After completing the rosary I decided to go down the back outdoor stairs to get some fresh air. They were a long flight of stairs. Half way down the stairs, I was picked up and thrown out into the air and fell onto the ground below. Thankfully I wasn’t badly hurt. I had a feeling that I was dealing with a spirit I didn’t want to mess with. There was no one to talk to about what I was going through. You are considered crazy if you talk about the devil. I didn’t think anyone would believe me. So, I prayed and prayed, called on St. Michael, and regularly sprinkled Holy Water through the house and on myself.
I didn’t pray the Litany of Praises for months because I really and truly believed I would die. But then the Holy Spirit began to stir within me and He was urging me to offer up the Praises. I was terrified but I didn’t want to refuse God this request. So I turned to our Blessed Mother Mary, and I told her that I wanted to offer these Praises through Her Immaculate Heart for her intentions. I told her that I thought I would die if I prayed them so I asked her to guide and take care of my soul if I was killed. Then I began to pray the Praises. It was amazing…I felt uplifted in spirit! I knew everything was ok. I have never been afraid to pray that Litany since. The devil hates Jesus being praised. The dark spirit was broken.
These spirit seminars may seem to be exciting but they are very dangerous. I don’t do that scene anymore. I believe that I got off lightly but some people may not. How many other people are carrying these spirits around and don’t even realize it? It’s a very sobering situation. To be informed is to be forearmed. Ignorance can sure get you in trouble. I thank my Guardian Angel for his protection as well.
Thanks for sharing that. Yikes!
Your experience is “textbook”…
In your case, it sounds as if the devil was actually trying to keep you from praising our Lord in your customary way.
A note of caution however: Don’t make rules for the devil! He may, for instance, do a bit of “reverse psychology”, so that he insists you don’t pray this don’t pray that and don’t pray the other thing, and another one besides, multiplied ad infinitum. He tries to wear people down, get them frustrated.
We just have to know that he’s not the boss. All things can be done serenely in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, giving no credence to the Father of Lies.
This is extremely appropros of concerns I have had in my parish for a long time now and have strongly wanted to ask advice about here so I hope I may seize the opportunity. There is a charismatic prayer group for university students at my parish, apparently initiated by the head pastor, that is hidden downstairs on Sunday evenings but inevitably has an impact on the spiritual climate of the parish. St John of the Cross, the Mystical Doctor, is my favorite Saint and I see him saying it is illicit and displeasing to God to seek consolations or phenomena and that although sometimes God answers these requests lest someone become sad or fall away, “sometimes the devil answers.” Since John of the Cross is my basic spiritual point of reference I would have nothing to do with that. I just had a conversation with the assistant/junior pastor yesterday who attends these prayer meetings, not wholly on board with it, not “Charismatic” himself, but trying to “make sure it is done properly” and for instance that they do not get into disputes about “who really has the charisms”. But I do not think there is a proper way to do what is displeasing to God. This young pastor says, there are documents of the Holy See referring to and even encouraging the Charismatic movement, so we cannot speak against it. The documents I can find either speak of it so generally and without mentioning specific practices, or are actually documents originating with ecumenical dialogue with Pentecostals and so I think they are not Magisterial documents properly speaking. I do not speak against the people or their prayerful association with one another, and I definitely do not intend to speak against the Holy Spirit Whom I also have total need of, but against what I think is an imprudent modus operandi which seems to have originated among Protestants and is not without dangers. I have prayed for an end to Charismatic movement activity at my parish (on a secular university campus) and protection from spiritual harm for the students, for a long time. May I ask [snip!... Better send me an email about the rest!]
Also the [snip!... Better put that in an email! Yikes!]
Father, thanks sincerely for having more prudence than me